Bittersweet Façade
by Tsukiko no Yuki
Summary: He was the hated son of the assassin Kyuubi, the man her father, the loathed president, had sworn to kill. He was a nobody and so was she. Becoming a somebody has never been harder.. even in an online roleplaying game. [NaruHina][AU]


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!**

**

* * *

****A Runaway from Reality**

"And I present to you… _Wind Dancer_, also known as… Hyuuga Hinata!"

She walked forward, looking at the audience with a pleased smile. Her usually straight, dark hair with a slightly blue tone was in curls today, and her normally covered-up curves were shown off with great generosity today with the tight black cocktail dress that hugged her body. She waved to the crowd, her pearly white eyes sparkling with delight, and grabbed the microphone.

Parting her lips, she let out a soft sigh before letting a melody take shape from the words she sang.

_Cultivate your hunger before you idealize_

_Motivate your anger to make them all realize_

_Climbing the mountain… never coming down_

_Break into the contents… never coming down_

The audience was enchanted by her soft, harmonic voice, and all gazed up at her with awe as she continued. But there was one voice that kept calling out to her, its usually monotone voice filled with irritation.

_Don't try to live so wise_

"Hinata-sama…"

_Don't cry 'cause you're so right_

"Hinata-sama…"

_Don't –_

"**HINATA-SAMA!"**

She woke up with a start. It was all a dream… but of course it was.

"Hinata-sama." The voice came from a boy roughly the same age as her, his normally emotionless voice filled with something that sounded like suppressed anger; his dark coffee-brown hair was neatly combed as usual, his identical pair of milk-colored eyes looking blank to everybody else, but Hinata had known him a long time – they were filled with something else.

Hatred. Envy. Unexpressed feelings boiling within as he had to put on a façade, a face and an act, that didn't feel natural, that he didn't want to do.

Words he had hidden for years…

"Hinata-sama, you'll be late for school."

She closed her eyes, and then slowly moved her aching fingers. She winced. She had played too much _Alternate Universe _last night; but the latest world had been fascinating. Ninjas… villages… fights…

And that place… Fire Country…

'Please… let me sleep. Just a little while longer…,' she motioned with her hands.

He frowned in response. "Hinata-sama, reality is more important than your dreams. It is Hiashi-sama's wish that you go to school, and that you will do, as long as you're still the heiress."

She lowered her head in shame.

"And besides," he added, as he proceeded out of the room, "dreams are for the weak and the foolish. Reality was destined to be the way it is, and there's nothing that can change it."

And with those words, he closed the door – and she her eyes, hiding the pain she was afraid to show.

_But__… my dream just seemed so__** real**_…

* * *

He slowly let his eyelids move, revealing his sapphire eyes filled with exhaustion. 

_Another worthless dream. Even if it seemed real…_

He could hear his stepfather's snores from the bedroom; he himself was situated on the couch in the living room. He shivered.

_It's cold. Winter already?_

Rubbing his eyes, he stifled a yawn as he stood up. His blonde hair was even untidier than usual, his black shirt as wrinkled as though it had never been ironed, his white shorts revealing his astonishingly not hairy legs.

He lazily scanned the room for something edible – nothing came into sight. There was an aged TV that would've belonged better in a museum than a home, and the tiny part of the room that was called the kitchen showed nothing more than a fridge that he very well knew was empty, and a counter filled with emptied bottles of alcohol.

_So he had drunk. Again._

He didn't even bother to care. Instead, he bent down on his knees and searched under the couch until he found a box, and opening it, he revealed a bright orange jumpsuit.

It was his only clothing.

Dusting it off tenderly as he had just been into a fight the other night and made it dirty, he smiled slightly.

_Fights._

He knew he was weak. Weak, inexperienced, clumsy. But in that game… he became everything he wanted to be, everything he could have been but wasn't.

The savior. The hero. The winner.

_But if you have nowhere to run, you have to run from reality._

Because he was Uzumaki Naruto, the only son of the infamous assassin Kyuubi.

* * *

Haruno Sakura hated school. 

There was no particular reason as to _why _she did. She just did. When somebody asked her why, she'd say 'well, because it's boring and just _awful_'. What she really meant was 'well, because everybody else says so, that's why!'

It was true. Haruno Sakura was a copycat – whatever anybody else did, she followed suit. She just didn't know what to do – or how. Being around people had never been natural for her, not then, not now. Not even when she had been enrolled into a school with 'more decent pupils', had she been able to act naturally around anybody else except her best friend and rival, Yamanaka Ino.

Not that she agreed the school's pupils were 'more decent'. They weren't very different from the ones in her previous school, with the exception that they were richer, more posh, and snottier. Other than that – nada.

But of course she didn't tell her parents that. That'd disappoint them, and stop them from bragging to every single person how their daughter attended a 'good' school, making other people think it was so good that they'd make their own children attend it.

Ah, the naïve nature of parents.

So to make sure she was as loved by her fellow classmates as by her parents, as to stop the events from her not so adorable childhood to repeat themselves again, she made sure to act pleasant around every single person, and agree to every single thing they said.

Except two people.

The first was Hyuuga Hinata. To be honest, she didn't dislike the girl, but everybody else did – of course. She was the daughter of the current president, and as the president was loathed by the inhabitants of Fire Country for his selfishness, Hinata was blamed on for her father's deeds, as she was the heiress as well and would take the responsibility of the country, and many thought she'd follow her father's footsteps.

And the second was Uzumaki Naruto.

The annoying, idiotic blonde prankster drove her and everybody else nuts. Not only did everybody else hate him as well for his parents – another reason why Sakura could officially despise him – but he was _so _annoying! Who did he think he was? And to think that he thought he could compete with Sasuke-kun… hmph!

And oh, of course. The stereotypical 'popular guy' of high school, Uchiha Sasuke's only difference from the main character in a boring high school movie was his unsocial nature, making girls swoon about his 'mysterious shyness'. Truth to be told, he was just a cold, stubborn boy, who liked few and disliked many, and the more girls tried to make him 'open up', the more he 'went further into his shell'.

Sakura was one of the girls who stubbornly believed that he'd one day 'open up'. She, along with her best friend Yamanaka Ino, were more commonly known in Konoha High as the girls who were Sasuke's number one fans.

And someday, somewhere, Sakura dreamt that her dream would come true, perhaps during a cheesy rendezvous in the moonlight, where he'd bow down on one knee and tell her he'd love her, and would she please become his wife after high school?

The mere thought almost made her drool. Mark the word: _almost_. Sakura never, ever drooled. It was impolite, and _nobody else did it_.

So here she was, lazily leaning her head against the palm of her hand as her arm went in a 'V' sign from the shoulder, to the elbow that touched the shiny wooden surface of the desk, to the hand in which her chin rested, barely listening to the English teacher, the young and inexperienced Umino Iruka, while she watched Ino and Ami giggle in front of her.

"Haruno-san," Iruka's voice called out, startling her to reality as her thoughts were about to drift away again. "Would you answer the question, please?"

"Ah… what?" She blinked dumbly, her face turning the color of her dress – bright violet-crimson.

Iruka sighed loudly. "Please don't fall asleep during class, Haruno-san."

"Oh… uhh.. I'm sorry." A few snickered in the back of the class, and a boy whispered tauntingly: "Wide Forehead Girl!" Sakura's face just reddened even more.

"Whatever. What I was asking was: what happened during the 1600s here in Konoha? Was the civilization advanced compared to those other ones outside of Fire Country? Anyone?" But no hands were raised. Sakura's blush intensified. She actually knew that answer to that question, but it was too late now.

"Hyuuga-san?" Iruka's gaze hesitated as the hazel eyes met a pair of surprised cream-colored ones. "Do you know the answer?"

Sakura saw her doing some motions of her hands – sign language. She felt a pang of guilt in her chest – the poor girl was mute, but still everybody hated her so much. Because she was Hyuuga Hiashi's child…

"That's correct, yes."

_Stop daydreaming, Haruno Sakura! _she scolded herself mentally. _Like it wasn't bad enough with lunch break, now you're embarrassing yourself in class too…_

She suppressed a groan as she recalled the lunch break just half an hour ago. She had been speaking with Ino, Ami, and the rest of the countless Sasuke fans/popular girls, and all of a sudden she had asked, 'Does anybody play _Alternate Universe _here?'

Sakura cursed herself for her stupidity. Of course they didn't. The popular girls always partied, went shopping, went to the hair salon or stylist's or a concert or…

Or made out, flirted or got into bed with guys.

Even if they claimed they were in love with Sasuke-kun, they said that they couldn't 'stay as nuns until the day he opens up'. Sakura agreed with them (as always) when they said so, but to be truthful, she never did that.

Heck, she hadn't even gotten her first kiss.

That's why Ami tauntingly said: '_Alternate Universe_? Aw, c'mon, Sakura, we're not a bunch of nerds. But if you are one, go ahead and join them over there.' She gestured towards a corner of excitingly talking girls and boys with glasses and ugly clothes. One of them burped, causing the others to laugh.

'Besides,' another girl added, 'Why would _we _want a different life? _Alternate Universe _is for those sick weirdos who wished they had another life. We don't.'

And then they proceeded on to talk about one of the royal Sand siblings' birthday party. To which Sakura hadn't been invited.

_But_, she silently added in her mind, _maybe people really do wish they had another life. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Why wouldn't we want another life? In which we didn't have to pretend… in which our most inner dreams could come true._

Her eyes travelled slowly to Hinata. _Like her, for example. Or…_

Very reluctantly, she turned to the boy sitting beside her. Naruto had for the last ten minutes tried to make her engage in a conversation by talking about ramen (his favorite dish), but with little success. _The others would hate me too if I were with him._

"Huh? Sakura-chan?"

His voice cut across her daydreams, and Sakura cursed herself again – this time for being caught staring at the one boy she _couldn't _stare at.

Wait. _Couldn't? _Wasn't it more like… _doesn't want to_? Not like she could anyway – or wanted to, for that matter! God, what was wrong with her?

"Nothing. It's just… nothing," she said, turning away again. To her greatest dislike, she felt her cheeks heat up.

"Sakura-chan? You look like you've a fever, are you alright?"

His voice was worried. Sometimes, just _sometimes_, she actually thought that it was sweet of him to be so concerned about her even if she so coldly neglected him.

But then again, she had to blame herself for being the first one to talk to him. And she had to blame herself for her desperation for popularity; even if she had turned him down it had indeed been _cruel _–

God, what was she thinking? And all because of that stupid _Alternate Universe._

"No, I'm fine," she muttered almost inaudibly. _I __**knew **__I never should have listened to Shikamaru. But some of the popular girls said he was cute, right? And… but… okay, he's still a nerd, somehow, but… ARGH, WHAT AM I THINKING?_

"Hey, Sakura-chan," he started cheerily, "I heard from Shikamaru that you were interested in _Alternate Universe_, are you playing it too?"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. _GREAT, so he plays it too? Dear God, do you seriously have a problem with me or do you just like to mess up my life?_

"Of course I don't," she snapped. "I do actually have a _real _life. And a _real _Sasuke-kun," she added swiftly, as though that was the thing of the greatest importance. She noticed the sulk coming onto Naruto's face almost instantly, and a triumphant grin found its way onto hers.

But she could see something else in his sapphire orbs, something nobody else could, even if she never said so. Sakura was a great observer, especially of feelings she was too familiar with. Neglect. Hurt. Masking it with a lesser vulnerable sulk.

A pang of guilt appeared in her chest. But… nobody else cared about this blue-eyed boy. So why should she?

* * *

Sometimes, people grow up. Mostly at the most unexpected times. When swallowing the last crumbs of your tuna sandwich on the bus, when saying goodbye to a friend after a sleepover, when just about to fall asleep during Algebra class. 

For Uchiha Sasuke, it occurred somewhere else.

It was at that moment, that very moment when he had been standing in front of Uchiha Mikoto's grave, that moment when he with a trembling voice told his father that his mother was just out buying groceries and would be coming back any minute, that moment when his brother had grabbed him by the collar and shouted in his face that he was running away from reality and had to realize their mother was dead.

It was at that moment that Uchiha Sasuke had grown up. He had just turned eight – just two days after his birthday, actually – and then, just like a thunderbolt from the cloudless blue sky, he grew up.

He isolated himself from others. "Cut off bonds", was what he called it. To be truthful, he hadn't had any bond to begin with. He didn't affiliate himself with anyone, didn't feel self-pity like so many others said he should, just became… cold.

He never spoke to anybody after that if he didn't have to, and it was mostly about less important matters. And even less did he speak to the people in school.

In Sasuke's opinion, his schoolmates were… well, they were just _pathetic_.

The girls who sighed and daydreamed and giggled and stalked and asked and blushed and became embarrassed and flirted and gave gifts and everything you could possibly think of around him? Had there ever been more pathetic creatures? Not that Sasuke had ever seen. These females were extraordinarily weak – even for their species.

And the boys? Well, they were just… boys.

Except that Uzumaki Naruto.

It was strange to describe what Uchiha Sasuke thought about him. Well, gossip had its way to tell things, of course. Uzumaki Naruto had once long ago beaten him in a fight, a rumor said. Another claimed that they had once been the best of friends and then had fought about one girl and that's why they never talked anymore.

But then again, rumors were never true.

For Sasuke, the description was simple: he avoided him. He was not unfriendly with him… just to him. He was not friendly with him either… or to him.

Simple as that.

He didn't need any friends. He didn't need anybody. He could survive perfectly alone, or just live perfectly alone, and he wouldn't care.

Even on _Alternate Universe_, he didn't need anyone.

Too bad Sasuke never learned how to stop running away from reality.

* * *

Dinnertime. 

Most people enjoyed this time of the day. The time when you just pulled back and relaxed, eating delicious food with fellow family, talking and laughing.

This, however, did not apply to Hinata. Or anybody else in the Hyuuga household, for that matter.

"How is school going?" Hyuuga Hiashi barked in a way quite reminiscent of an aggressive dog.

'Fine,' Hinata motioned with her fingers, her face muscles not stirring the slightest.

"Are your grades going up?"

She nodded slowly.

"You said that last time too. What did you get on the test?"

'One…' She hesitated, her hands stopping their movements.

"One what?"

'I made one mistake…' She immediately regretted what she had said. He slammed his fist down on the table, making the servants jump nervously. Her younger sister, Hanabi, just kept on eating as though nobody was there at all.

"One mistake? How many times do I need to tell you to study, Hinata? You're more useless than your sister!"

Hanabi didn't even react to the comment. A look of hurt appeared in Hinata's eyes, but it passed away quickly as she was staring down at the table. 'I'm… sorry…'

"You should be." His voice was colder than ice. "That Neji boy is getting better grades than you. And he's a Branch house member."

No reply. What was there left to say? Hinata chewed on her food slowly, having lost all her appetite. Not that she had one to begin with.

"I was thinking of… _giving _you away."

Hinata's head shot up like a bullet, trying to suppress the terror appearing in her eyes. Giving her away? _But what about our promise with –_

She stopped short, even in her thoughts she didn't dare to voice her opinion aloud. Her father did what he wished to do, whether she liked his decisions or not. If it was his wish to cause more unpopularity for the Hyuuga family, he would cause it anyway, no matter how badly it'd affect the situation.

"We need to settle the battle with Suna once and for all," he continued calmly as he sipped his tea, the servants silently carrying away his empty bowls, "and Hinata, you will be our… _bait_." Pause. "Don't mess it up."

Hinata nodded slowly, arose and bowed, not looking at the man she called her father in the face, and only allowed herself to cry quietly when she had safely reached her own room and locked the door.

* * *

"_And the karaoke contest was over! The Guild of the Hunchbacked Dwarves won with 3-0, please collect your prize –"_

A certain blue-eyed blonde snorted as he leaned back in the computer chair – or what was supposed to be a computer chair, anyway. In many others' eyes, it'd most likely resemble a clumsily hammered together wooden stool with some kind of unsafe back.

"They won… _again_," he huffed for himself as he ordered his character to walk away from the stage, clicking on the _Face... Emotions _part, having his game character, a _yellow_-haired (you could hardly call _that _blonde) ninja wearing an orange jumpsuit, wear the same sour face as he did in real life.

To be truthful, he could've cared less. The Guild of the Hunchbacked Dwarves were weak, and not even well-known among the different servers, whereas _his _guild – the ANBU Elite Ninjas – were known among most. But losing in the game – if only for once – still made him annoyed.

"Are you mad because you lost?" the taunting voice of the annoying _brat_ that called himself 6_WhoLetTheDogsOut6 _sounded from his speakers. Naruto glared furiously at the hood-wearing game character, and typed back an answer.

"I'm not," the fake voice of the game character (which, Naruto was pleased to admit, was much deeper than his real one) replied, "Just because you're such a sore _winner_, idiot."

"It's a sore _loser_, not a sore _winner_, _you _idiot," snarled the dog-lover back, his face twisting into an angry grimace on the screen. Naruto adjusted his voice (_Voice… Emotions)_ to a more taunting one, like the one the dog-lover had used before, and answered:

"I was making fun of you, idiot."

"Why you…"

They were about to clash into a battle of their own right then and there, when the "announcement speaker" voice interrupted them.

"And tonight, only for you, we've the amazing performance of… _Wind Dancer_!"

_Wind Dancer? _Naruto made his game character ignore the yelling dog-lover and walked away, the buzz of the people talking and somebody occasionally shouting, 'Party at my place! Party at the _Poisonous Paradise _server, the house's number is…' And then he approached the stage and saw her.

It was amazing. She looked like an ordinary ninja – just like any other, actually. But there was something about her, something about her entire game character that was different. He zoomed in on her face. There was something familiar about her... something enchanting…

The crowd stopped to whisper as they heard the song – _it sounds so real_ – they knew the mini-game was difficult. Standing on the stage having to fix voice and melody in just a matter of minutes was hard, especially with the little time they had. The fact that she could just sing like that, sing so _real_… was just…

_Don't try to live so wise –_

... too bizarre…

_- don't cry 'cause you're so right –_

… too beautiful…

_- 'cause you'll hate yourself in the end._

… too real.

She smiled and bowed as the crowd exploded with applause. As she got off stage, she was surrounded by dozens of questions, so many users that he couldn't see her username – and he had already forgotten it… what was it? Something with dancer…

He turned around abruptly, cutting across a laughing elf in a tuxedo as he chatted with a beautiful warrior wearing very skimpy clothes. He considered making some rude comment, but decided to instead do what he had intended to. "Hey, do you know who it was who sang just now?"

"You don't know?" The elf stared at him in disbelief, maybe mostly because the female warrior was now looking at him flirtatiously, "That's Wind Dancer. She's famous, you know – comes around a lot. Don't you ever come here, or are you just deaf?"

Naruto felt tempted to start a fight with him. He didn't even seem particularly strong – _level 75? What's up with that? _– but it was meaningless. Beating up another measly elf wouldn't make him a better ninja. "I don't come around here very often. I'm mostly at the ninja server… you know, the Fire Country server…"

"I know that," the elf cut him off impatiently, waving him away, turning back to the sexy female warrior with a hopeful grin, "Anyway, sweetheart, I was just saying…"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he proceeded to search for _her _– Wind Dancer. As he saw her profile, he was surprised that it was so… plain. _Is she really famous? Why doesn't have a cooler layout, then?_

He shrugged for himself. It didn't matter. _I'm not here for that, anyway. _His sapphire orbs scanned down the page fast, finding the 'Statistics' almost immediately.

_**Wind Dancer, member as of September 19**__**th**__** 2006**_

_**Age: 17 **__(Same as me…)_

_**Location: Japan **_(_Japan? Same as me…)_

_**Occupation: High School Student **__(Still same as me! Do I know this person?)_

_**Wind Dancer's Statistics**_

_**Class: Ninja **_(_ME!)__**, performer **_(_Okay, not me)_

_**Level: 125 (Chuunin) **__(I'm a little bit higher, but okay)_

_**Experience Points Needed For Next Level: 1500**_

_**Total Experience Points: 1920412**_

_**Strength: 20**_

_**Defense: 34**_

_**Speed: 55 **__(Holy shit)_

_**Charm: 51**_

_**Courage: 60 **__(Awesome)_

_**Magic: 28**_

He grinned, and exiting her profile, he found that the many users that had come to talk her had now gone off somewhere, and she was proceeding towards the exit of the karaoke bar.

"Hey… you! Wind Dancer, that's your name, isn't it?"

She turned around, surprised. "Yes?"

"You're a ninja, right?"

"Oh… yeah."

"Are you part of any guild?"

"No." She paused. "Nobody's ever asked."

_Is this girl really famous? _Naruto frowned in real life. It seemed the elf had exaggerated things a little. "Well, I'm asking you now," his voice in the game sounded cheerfully, "do you want to join us? We're a ninja guild, from the Fire Country server. The ANBU Elite Ninjas."

"Oh, sure." She smiled. "I'm in, then. Are you the leader?"

"Yep." He grinned. "Hey, are you from Japan too? Which city?"

Her smile faded away, replaced by a blank face expression. "That, leader-san, I don't think is relevant. Goodbye."

"Hey – wait –" She was already halfway to the exit, and there were too many people in the way, "- Wind Dancer, I…"

She was gone.

"… didn't get your email address…" He stared at the Joining a Guild form. _In order to join the guild, you're required to hand out your email address (from the game), in order to gain permission to the guild's headquarters. If the email address is not received after three days after the request of joining the guild, the request is declined and deleted from our servers._

He clicked on her profile again.

_This user's email address has been disabled. The user might have disabled it himself/herself, or you might have been blocked by this user. If neither, please contact the staff._

_The Teleport To Where This User Is is under maintenance until November 20__th__. We apologize for the inconvenience._

He swore. "Now what?"

* * *

And this is the first chapter of my first NaruHina fic ever! I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review! 


End file.
